STORY:
Mukesh Ambani’s son Akash Ambani allegedly kills 2 in a car accident in Mumbai. Media blacks out the news.
HOAX OR FACT:
Mixture of hoax and facts.
ANALYSIS:
These messages about the richest son of India, Akash Ambani allegedly killing two persons in a car crash in Mumbai broke out on social media after Sunday, the 7th of December 2013. It is also said that the media has blacked out the news to safeguard the son of Mukesh Ambani, who owns or influences most of the leading news channels of the country. The claims are mixture of hoax and facts.
ABOUT THE ACCIDENT
On early Sunday morning at around 1.30 am, a Rs 4.5-crore black Aston Martin (MH-01-BK-99) owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Ports speeded over 100km per hour and banged into two vehicles, causing a pile up on Peddar Road, Mumbai. The Aston Martin lost its control and first rammed into an Audi, pushing it over the divider that hit an oncoming private bus. The impact was so strong that the Aston Martin lost one of its tyres and hit a Hyundai Elantra, dragging up to 30-35 metres. After the car came to halt, the driver of the Aston Martin is reported to have fled the scene in one of their security vehicles Honda CRV, leaving the Aston Martin behind.
THE REPORTS AND RESPONSE
The Audi car hit by Aston Martin was being driven by Foram Ruparel, a 25-year-old MBA student and Ghatkopar resident, who filed FIR with Mumbai police. The Hyundai Elantra was owned by Vikram Mishra, a resident of Thane who works at a pharmaceutical firm. According to the initial reports, eyewitness told Zee 24 Taas that Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani's son Akash Ambani was in the car when the accident took place, and that he was "fully drunk". These initial reports of the incident from Zee news and Times of India were later removed from their website. Even though the accident caught wide attention of people and media criticism on social networking sites, some mainstream media did not highlight the car crash, while some others that reported did not mention the car’s Reliance affiliation.
Although there were some speculations that two persons were killed in the Aston Martin car crash, it does not appear so. According to the police, three people were injured in the accident. It should be noted that one of the passengers in Hyundai Elantra was a pregnant woman, who sustained injuries. However, on 27th November 2013, another accident took place on Peddar Road, where a speeding car driven by businessman Akshay Bajaj knocked down killing two Municipal corporation workers Prakash Parmar and Laxmiben Makwana. This accident and the deaths caused are perhaps mixed up with the subsequent Aston Martin car crash. There were no deaths reported in the Mumbai car crash linked with Mukesh Ambani's son.
THE CONSEQUENCES
The next day, after 12 hours of the accident, driver Bansilal Joshi (55), who weighs 100kg and had worked with Reliance Ports for around 30 years, turned up at the Gamdevi police station and confessed that he was the one who had taken the car for a test drive on Sunday morning and crashed it. He claims that he was assigned to drive Ambani's son Akash around. The police did not make any arrests and is investigating the case, taking fingerprints and DNA evidence from the car and other sources.
In between these available facts, there are number of factors that raise suspicions about the driver of the Aston Martin:
- If the driver was on a test drive and not a family member, why were two security vehicles following the car?
- Generally, no driver would drive a Rs 4.5 crore Aston Martin car at over 100 kmph when followed by a security detail.
- And then, why was the driver whisked away from the crash site, without reporting it or recording a statement?
- It should be noted that the police did not make any arrests, even though Bansilal Joshi claimed he was the one driving the car during mishap. The police department is verifying his statement against his call records and other CCTV footage during his supposed test drive.
Mukesh Ambani deals with media groups like Network 18 and is certainly a big investor. A clear, unbiased investigation by police and media can only bring forth the actual facts behind the Aston Martin car crash in Mumbai, whether it was really Mukesh Ambani's son Akash Ambani in a drunken state. Considering the frequent hit and run cases that happen in case of speeding and reckless driving of luxury cars, it is high time that the laws should be made stringent and the guilty be punished aptly.
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